


Mothalia

by dianamolloy



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies), Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Alien Character(s), Alien Planet, Aliens, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Original Character Death(s), Shapeshifter Loki (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-02 15:05:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16307456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianamolloy/pseuds/dianamolloy
Summary: Loki in need of an ingredient for his favourite spells visits a planet where its people are a large type of lepidoptera - aka moths.A little Halloween inspired one-shot.





	Mothalia

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr Link](http://dianamolloy.tumblr.com/post/179644760434/written-as-part-of-loki-the-fox-35-somebodys)

* * *

Gifts, even from Loki, were usually permanent even if for some recipients they were known to transmogrify but Balder had worn at Loki's "good grace" - unsurprising for anyone whose self appointed moniker was Balder _the Brave._ Which is how the former found himself in command of Skithblathnir, a flying karve with the ability of intergalactic travel that Loki had magicked right from under Balder's nose. And for good measure if the illusion which was now in place was tampered with it would turn into mistletoe. Not enough to kill Balder. Probably.

Almost certainly.

Not for long.

Look he really had pissed Loki off.

Jaunt had been the term Odin had used disapprovingly and he wasn't incorrect but Loki didn't care. Not after the decade long deployment on a planet adjacent to the Isle of Silence where the vocal folds of none of its inhabitants produced neither vibration nor sound, although mercifully the atmosphere itself broadcast some noise which was enough to not drive its inhabitants insane. Tedious was his initial assessment, disgruntled none would get the sharp end of his rejoinders, not that he would have anything to reply to but Loki was unaware how detestable it would become until he had been in-situ for the first year. In battle and bed especially, the two activities he desired noise the most. Beyond that, the self-satisfied purr of a good stretch, the low thrum of appreciation in his chest following a gulp of rich wine; he had missed them all. Evolution responded accordingly and the natives' physiology had adapted over a mega-annum and suffered none of the frustrations visitors did.

To Loki, the return of his voice had turned him loquacious, conversing with his copies at perhaps a beat too fast and they in turn doing the same. Skithblathnir was vast and impossible to steer alone and Loki was desperate to use his voice as much as he could with the return of his dominance over it but doing so with his own selves would more than suffice.

 _Stephanotis floribunda_  nectar was expensive, which was not an issue for a prince, uncommon, but again the right amount of units smoothed that wrinkle. However, what was available in the off-world markets was often subpar due to incorrect extraction and that part was problematic; some of Loki's favourite spells required it and it grew on a single planet in the whole of any known realm. Mothalia was filled with an abundance of heavily perfumed white flowers - none of any use to anyone except a lovesick fool and certainly not to a sorcerer beyond the stephanotis. Winged creatures of various sub-species populated it and while the residents were not known to be aggressive, the planet happened to exist in close proximity to black hole and was dangerous to reach safely hence the rarity; additionally, to obtain the liquid one needed a proboscis as damaging the flower released a gas which made the nectar worthless and the manual devices the stall holder's assistants brought with them were often too rough.

Exiting the ship most of the copies dissipated, with the exception of the one by his side and a third left on the vessel. Knee deep in the wrong flora, it wasn't a long trek but Loki failed to initially notice that the flowers were almost a crown for the cornucopia of the pale cream, circular squash underneath.

Pressure from the dead star trying to swallow anything its atmosphere came in contact with had taken the nearest sun, leaving the only other sun able to affect Mothalia a considerable distance away and too far for true daylight hours to exist. The planet was instead lit in perpetual dusk and thus why - save for a short period each day where the alignment was perfect - there was an absence of warmer hues in the vegetation.

Pausing by the best of what he was looking for, Loki took a long, amber bottle in what looked like glass but was infinitely stronger from one of his many personal pockets of space, this where he kept useful containers. If one was smart they learned early on that a good receptacle was worth its weight in, depending on the owner, gold/units/stardust/bilgesnipe on many an occasion. There might have even been an original tupperware container and a Pyrex dish in a one-off, never released design from Midgard from a time that technically hadn’t yet occurred. A technicality. Loki had never found himself in need of either yet, and it was doubtful he would, but it was hardly as if magic pieces of the universe that he had squirrelled away when nobody was looking got overcrowded.

Face morphing, Loki’s eyes, bone structure and skin stayed the same, as did his nose to avoid the need spiracles all over his body so he could breathe, save for his mouth which elongated and changed from thin lips to a slim tube. As Loki extracted the nectar, his copy held onto the narrow bottle it was being deposited into. 

“Somebody’s watching us,” came the low warning from the double whilst Loki had his head deep in the blooms. Taking no obvious action Loki did as he had done dozens of times already and emptied the sticky liquid but inwardly he had become observant and ready to attack, if necessary and it very well might be as he presently had no mouth with which to talk himself out of potential trouble. 

A female child shrank back behind a tree and after whisking the almost full bottle to a different space, this one for magic supplies, Loki took a wide stride to the side to view her again. Height similar to Aesir children and bipedal that was where most of the similarities ended. Oval torso covered in a mustard and pink toned wool and wide wings in the same colours though they were drawn-in presently to aid the failed hiding attempt. She had four arms with as many fingers but no thumbs and the eyes which looked back at him was black and multifaceted. Like him she also had a proboscis and atop her head were two golden antennae.

“Are you taking from us?” The question broadcast inside his head once she had realised that keeping out of sight hadn’t worked.

”I am,” he communicated back. Loki would lie to anyone, he might lie so much that he eventually came to rest at the truth before telling another falsehood to rebalance things but where he could avoid it, in his limited interactions with children, he was more or less honest with them. If asked why, well he would be dishonest obviously, that was established, but to tell the truth (urgh, if he _had_ to) he didn’t quite know the reason himself. 

”As the princess I say you’re not allowed,” her fluffy head tilted up imperiously. Loki would have laughed but that whole lack of mouth made it awkward, but he could tell she was aware of his, not unkind, amusement.

“Lepidra!” A stern tone that both heard and was familiar to Loki as belonging to an annoyed and frustrated mother. A much taller version of the girl, surpassing him in height by several inches he could tell even with her above, flew downward and made them a quartet.

Queen Niidae was a solitary leader, their people taking mates but not companionship and her mother had been queen before her, as had her mother’s mother and so forth just as one day Lepidra would be. Strangers had visited their world and had cultivated no interest in her, not in the way this wingless being, and the other of his species, was as soon as she had seen him and rather impulsively Niidae found herself inviting him to return to the palace with her.

Asgard was not Loki’s destination after Mothalia and as he was in no hurry now his personal task had been completed he accepted, drawing his other self inside but leaving the last within Skithblathnir. Flightless no more, Loki who had grown tired of avoiding the pumpkins underfoot, stretched the delicate, deep green silken wings he now possessed out. 

Built into an ancient, and as tall as a mountain, oak tree, the castle differed greatly to anything within the nine realms. And she the banquet, which were daily during his visit, that was thrown that evening was in his honour or a standard meal Loki couldn’t tell. While they could transmit thoughts among each other, with multiple participants, neither species appeared to be able to read the others’ mind. The squash made another appearance, this time laid out half rotten, the flesh soft, liquid and oversweet but in this dual-form it tasted delicious to him and nourished Loki as any good meal ever had.

After supper came the fun part. Niidae had informed him as they ate, Loki’s flirtations impossible to ignore, that the people of Mothalia mated to procreate and nothing further. Loki had propositioned her into letting him show her otherwise. And the others of the royal court. Using his seidr to change his sexual anatomy had been a necessity for some deeds and for others he had stayed as himself. Or herself, depending on the mood. All involved had a deeply satisfying time. Repeatedly. Over several months.

Not drawn to youth either way, Loki had missed the speed in which the queen had aged and on his last day in Mothalia he awoke not to her willing body as a salve to his insatiable one but instead the sheets beside him and on his skin where he had rolled in sleep were covered in an iridescent dust. Loki could handle and accept death but that it covered him in parts as if a shroud was too much. He wanted nothing more than to be away from this planet, to scrub himself clean on Skithblathnir until a new layer of skin grew. Teleporting to the vessel in his true form Loki had left all of his clothing in the dead queen’s room - he would have only incinerated everything had he brought anything back on his return. While Loki cleaned his skin of all traces, enough of his doubles to pilot the ship shimmered into being.

* * *

Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, and Loki’s paths might have crossed had Queen Niidae lived longer. When he did arrive to consume Mothalia, those who had ignored the planetary orders from Queen Lepidra perished but the majority escaped, using the black hole that was not quite a black hole and which had been a secret they had guarded to land on Midgard, taking a smaller form to blend with a similar species to them and closing the portal so Galactus could not follow. When Lepidra passed away in her old age, in far less debauched circumstances to her mother, her daughter took the crown and so on and so on.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween everyone <3


End file.
